An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/keck

by Friedrich Kluge

keck, adj., ‘pert, impudent,’ from MidHG. këc, a variant of quëc (inflected këcker, quëcker), ‘living, fresh’; OHG. chëc (inflected chëcchêr), quëc, quëcchêr, ‘living.’ Corresponding to AS. cwicu (cucu), ‘living,’ E. quick. The prim. meaning of the adj. is ‘living,’ and the ModHG. lebhaft, ‘lively,’ illustrates the development of the signification. For farther comparison we have to proceed from the corresponding Goth. adj. qiwa, ‘living’ (the second c, k of the HG. and E. words, is an insertion before the Goth. w). Goth. qiwa-, derived from gwiwo-, giwo-, corresponds exactly to Lat. vîvus for gwîvus, Sans. jîvás, ‘living,’ allied to Lat. vîvere (victus); Sans. jivâtus, ‘life,’ jîvathas, ‘life’; furthur, in Gr. with an initial β (comp. βαίνω, ‘to go’), βίος, βίοτος, βιόω; allied to OSlov. živŭ, Lith. gývas, OIr. beo, ‘living.’ All these forms indicate an Aryan root gī̆w, ‘to live.’ This root seems to be graded in Teut. only, in OIc. kveykva, kveikja (Goth. *qaiwjan), ‘to light a fire,’ prop. ‘to give life to.’ In ModHG. erquicken and Quecksilber are connected with the same root, and in fact with the Aryan, adj. gī̆wós, ‘living’; the loss of the u after q, which has differentiated keck from queck, is seen also in kommen, Köder, and Kot.